Hint: Not me.

I have four children (Jaymie, Jazmyn, Araya and Stephen), two surrogate children (Jessica and Billy) and one grand-daughter (Gabryale). I wear bifocals, have arthritis and more gray hair on my chin than on the top of my head. And yet the one thing that really makes me feel old is a conversation I had with my mother where she told me that she might be retiring next year. I don’t know why it makes me feel old, but it does.

Out of all my nieces and nephews, I am probably closest with Jessica. She is around the same age as Jazmyn and we have always tried to include her in as much stuff as we could. So she has always been more like another daughter than a niece. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see or talk to her as much as I would like, but she knows her Uncle Derek loves her.

day

red

by

eat

here

say

car

play

He was bored with these words before I was finished with cutting out the flash cards. To spice things up, I turned them upside down and held them up to the light so that he could read them backwards. And he still got all of them without hesitation.

So I decided to experiment with more advanced words to see where my six year was in the grand scheme of things. I had him read a back blurb from the back of Dynamite Entertainment’s Sherlock Holmes #5. I told him this is just an experiment, “skip any words you don’t know and there is no way to get this wrong”.

The original paragraph I had him read was: “Dynamite’s Sherlock Holmes launch and story is reminiscent of the their publishing of The Lone Ranger. Taking a classic character, making him accessible for today’s fans and giving him new life. I am also always impressed by John Cassaday’s cover designs, and his exe-cution, and Holmes is no let down, in fact, it’s taking it up a notch. Leah (Moore) and John Reppion are writing a story that will help cement their careers. Creating a new original story instead of an adaptation of previous works is a plus for comics and Holmes fans!”

The bolded words in the above paragraph are the ones he missed:

reminiscent (which a lot of adults get wrong),

Ranger (which surprised me a little, but not much),

accessible (again a word a lot of adults get wrong),

Cassaday (a name),

exe-cution (this was hyphenated because of a line break, I explained that the hyphen means that it is all one word),

Reppion (a name),

adaptation (not surprising) and

previous (which he thought was the word ‘precious’, which tells me that he didn’t read it all the way through and not that he didn’t know what it was).

Then I followed up with a back blurb from BOOM! Studios’ excellent graphicization* of Do Android’s Dream Of Electric Sheep. Same rules, but instead of a paragraph, he only had to read a single sentence.

The original sentence was “The most consistently brilliant science fiction writer in the world.”

OK, it is actually a sentence fragment, but the only word he missed was consistently and not by much because he pronounced it ‘constantly’ (which would also work in the context of the sentence).

I guess I am a little worried that while he knows words like publishing, character, impressed, original, brilliant and science he is given words like eat, say, car and play to study. That may fly now, but in a few years he will be bored in class and will just started to get lazy. When that points comes, it will be hard to keep him on a good track. Even if he doesn’t get lazy, he might get to the point where he starts wondering “Why should I try so hard when everybody else is getting by with doing much less?”

OK, maybe I’m more than a little worried.

* I know graphicization is not a real word, but it is as good a description of what BOOM! Studios is doing as anything else. Instead of adapting the book into comic book form, they are taking the entire text and adding pictures to it, so while it looks like a regular comic book and reads like a regular comic book, it really isn’t. Most non comic book readers won’t notice much of a difference (and a lot of regular comic book readers don’t notice one), but there is a slight change in presentation. I HIGHLY recommend the title to any science fiction, comic book, graphic arts or literature fans.

When we first go there, Stephen didn’t want to do anything except sit next to me. That was until the pizza came. He ate, the kids opened presents and he ended up having a pretty good day.

There was really only one present he wanted and as you can see he got it. Not to say that he didn’t appreciate getting the other gifts, but it was very obvious which one was his favorite.

I think it is a little weird that he is so into Mario because I remember playing Donkey Kong on the Atari 2600 with my cousins. For some reason, he doesn’t think that Mario has been around for so long.

Gabryale also attended the party and spent some time with her granddad. Every time I put my phone down, she would pick it up and hand it to me. So I took a picture.

I tried a couple of times to get her to smile, but she wasn’t having any of that.

Chances are really good that he will never see this post or even this blog, but a lot of the things that I do and say about him aren’t for his ears, they are to proclaim my love for him to the rest of the world. He is my youngest, but I have never felt a responsibility for the girls the way that I feel for him. Their mothers have to teach them how to be a woman in this world, I cannot help them with that no matter how much I research or read up on the subject.

I have a duty to teach Stephen how to be the best man I can teach him to be. I don’t know how he’ll turn out or if the job I’m doing is being done right, but I know it is my responsibility, duty and honor to do it. He will never know how much I love him, but I hope that the rest of the world never doubts it for an instant.

This is a bad picture, but my best friend Shawn Crump got a very prestigious honor. Here is the official Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COUNCILWOMAN BRENDA JONES PRESENTS SPIRIT OF DETROIT AWARD

Shawn Crump, IBEW Local 58 Business Agent receives award at Detroit Skilled Trades Task Force Meeting

DETROIT, Mi.-(July 28, 2009). Detroit City Councilwoman, Brenda Jones presented the prestigious Spirit of Detroit Award to Shawn Crump, Business Agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW Local 58 during the Detroit Skilled Trades Task Force Meeting yesterday.

The Spirit of Detroit Award is given by Detroit City Council members to a person, event or organization to honor outstanding achievement or service to the citizens of Detroit.

Mr. Crump serves on the Detroit Skilled Trades Task Force and is a member of the Detroit JATC Committee for the IBEW-NECA Electrical Industry apprenticeship program. Mr. Crump, along with IBEW Local 58 and the National Electrical Contractors Association of Southeastern Michigan are actively involved in educating Detroit citizens about education and employment opportunities available through the IBEW-NECA Joint Apprenticeship Training Center in Warren.

In addition to receiving the Spirit of Detroit Award, Mr. Crump was recently appointed to the National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (NJATC) National Committee as one of two labor representatives from the Midwest and one of only twenty four advisors on the committee. The NJATC oversees the development of the nationwide curriculum used to train the contractors and workforce for the Electrical Industry.

Crump began his career as a Journeyman Electrician for IBEW Local 58 in 1992. “I am honored to receive the Spirit of Detroit award from Councilwoman Brenda Jones and the Detroit City Council. I applaud Councilwoman Jones for her for support of the advancement of the Skilled Trades apprenticeship programs throughout our region and for valuing their role in the advancement of Detroit citizens.”

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW Local 58 and the National Electrical Contractors Association of Southeastern Michigan provide inside electrical, tele-data and renewable energy systems installation and maintenance for commercial and residential applications

Thanks to everyone who wished me well.

There are a few more at the Flickr site. As I get some more I will definitely share them.